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The Daily TIP: Iranian Atomic Chief: We Only Need Five Days to Enrich Uranium to Weapons-Grade Levels

Posted by Tip Staff - August 22, 2017

Iranian Atomic Chief: We Only Need Five Days to Enrich Uranium to Weapons-Grade LevelsIsrael's Unemployment Rate Drops to Record LowU.N.: Two Shipments of Chemical Weapons from North Korea to Syria were InterceptedIsraeli NGO Provides Emergency Flood Relief to Nepal

Iranian Atomic Chief: We Only Need Five Days to Enrich Uranium to Weapons-Grade Levels

Iran's atomic energy chief said Tuesday that the Islamic Republic would just need five days to ramp up its uranium enrichment to weapons-grade uranium.

Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said, "If there is a plan for a reaction and a challenge, we will definitely surprise them," the Associated Press reported. Salehi, who also serves as a vice-president to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, added, "If we make the determination, we are able to resume 20 percent-enrichment in at most five days."

Late last month, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran for its illicit ballistic missile program. Meanwhile, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom have agreed with the U.S. that Iran’s missile program, and specifically its recent launch of a Simorgh missile, violated Security Council resolution 2231, which formalized the 2015 nuclear deal.

Late last month, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran for its illicit ballistic missile program. Meanwhile, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom have agreed with the U.S. that Iran’s missile program, and specifically its recent launch of a Simorgh missile, violated Security Council resolution 2231, which formalized the 2015 nuclear deal.

Israel's Unemployment Rate Drops to Record Low

Israel's unemployment rate for July dropped to 4.1%, an all-time low.

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the rate fell from 4.3% in June, Globes reported Monday.

Overall, for the month of July there were 4 million people over the age of 15 in the workforce in Israel, of whom 3,836,000 were employed. Only 164,000 were reported to be unemployed.

For those aged 25 to 64, the rate of participation in the workforce was 80.1% in July, up from 79.8% in June.

In May 2016, Israel saw its unemployment rate drop to 4.8%, a 33-year low. Then to 4.6% in August, and 4.5% in October, which, at the time, was the record low.

When the unemployment rate dropped to 4.8 percent in May of last year, Motti Bassok of Haaretzexplained that the rate was “not only low historically but low by international standards, and by conventional economic definitions there’s no unemployment at all in Israel.”

U.N.: Two Shipments of Chemical Weapons from North Korea to Syria were Intercepted

North Korea has been caught delivering shipments to a Syrian government agency in charge of the country's chemical weapons program, according to a confidential United Nations (U.N.) report on North Korea’s sanctions violations.

The report, submitted to the U.N. Security Council earlier this month and seen by Reuters on Monday, was compiled by a panel of independent U.N. experts and revealed that two shipments to the Syrian agency had been intercepted in the past six months. It did not specify, however, where the interceptions happened or what the shipments contained.

"The panel is investigating reported prohibited chemical, ballistic missile and conventional arms cooperation between Syria and the DPRK (North Korea)," the experts stated in the report, adding that "two member states interdicted shipments destined for Syria” at the behest of KOMID, Pyongyang's major arms dealer and exporter of equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.

The United States and Russia brokered a deal in 2013 requiring Syria to destroy its chemical weapons stockpiles and the organization overseeing the elimination process last year declared the job complete. Weapons inspectors and diplomats, however, remain unconvinced that the program has been eliminated and suspect that Syria secretly maintained and developed new chemical weapons capability.

The Syrian regime’s lack of cooperation with international inspectors and the manipulation of information has sparked criticism among experts who fear it could set a precedent for other countries in violation of U.N. prohibitions, including Iran which has come under fire by the Trump administration for violating the spirit of the nuclear agreement.

Israeli NGO Provides Emergency Flood Relief to Nepal

Israeli non-governmental humanitarian aid organization IsraAID sent a first-response team of 16 volunteers to southern Nepal on August 17 to bring medical, psychosocial, and sanitation assistance in the wake of floods and landslides affecting six million people in 18 districts.

The surging waters have washed away thousands of houses and permanently damaged farmland, food stocks, and water infrastructure only two years after an earthquake wreaked devastation in the Asian country. More than 120 people have lost their lives, and many more are still missing.

Dangerous flooding in southern Nepal poses a high risk of waterborne disease, according to IsraAID, whose team was one of the first on the ground. More than 400 flood victims benefited from IsraAID’s services and activities on the first day alone.

“Our medical team saw a high number of cases of skin diseases, ear problems, and malnutrition. Fears of outbreaks of waterborne and mosquito-borne epidemics are growing. We are working in close coordination with local authorities and the Ministry of Health to monitor and respond as needed,” the organization reports.

Meanwhile, in Africa, IsraAID continues to provide emergency relief in Sierra Leone following disastrous flooding and mudslides there that began on August 14.

“Incessant rainfall this Sunday night and Monday left the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown in a state of emergency,” IsraAID reported. “Torrents of water rushed through the city in the early hours sweeping up entire homes, creating deadly mudslides and leaving massive destruction in its wake.

About 400 people have lost their lives, and hundreds are still missing after the heavy rains deluged the city’s insufficient drainage system.